Recent insights and discoveries in the field of neuroscience have given new importance and credibility to the role of intuition in leadership, especially when it comes to decision-making.

Do you trust your gut when it comes to the big stuff? Instincts and hunches may have a comforting influence on day-to-day decisions, but when it comes to major strategic choices and matters of great complexity, intuition doesn’t often get a seat in the C-Suite.

Leaders are more likely to rely on hard evidence and data, logic and rational analysis to support their biggest and most important decisions. However, recent insights and discoveries in the field of neuroscience have given new importance and credibility to the role of intuition in leadership, especially when it comes to decision making.

In developing the strategic skills of senior management in the corporate universities of several of the world’s largest corporations (e.g. Telef.nica, BASF, METRO AG), the Oxford Leadership™ rates ‘ intuitive intelligence’ as one of the most important areas of leadership development. Brian Bacon, Chairman and Founder of Oxford Leadership, discusses how they develop the intuitive intelligence of leaders and why it is a critical factor in leadership development.

Can you think of an occasion where you’ve had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right about a signifi cant business issue but didn’t listen to your intuition and later regretted it? Do you often doubt your intuition in favour of hard evidence to support your business decisions? If so, you may be underutilising one of the most powerful leadership tools, your intuitive intelligence.

We use our instinct and intuition in many facets of our lives. It may be one thing to do so in your personal life, but is it quite another to use intuition at work?